2nd at Hadley with Dryad Hate.dec

[Abhorsen105]

About 2 weeks before this tournament, I realized how incredibly boring Hulk is to play. I also realized that the hulk mirror, growing ever more common, relies a bit more on luck than I’d like. On top of this, I was getting 2 foil quirion dryads in the mail and wanted an excuse to use them. So I built this deck, straight Ug to start with, but ending up Ugr.

4 tropical island
3 volcanic island
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
5 island
1 forest
4 polluted delta
1 sol ring
1 black lotus
1 strip mine

4 quirion dryad

3 damping matrix
4 force of will
4 mana drain
2 mana leak

4 brainstorm
4 accumulated knowledge
1 gush
1 mystical tutor
2 cunning wish
1 deep analysis
1 merchant scroll
1 ancestral recall
2 future sight

1 regrowth
1 time walk
1 fastbond

SB:
1 firestorm
1 berserk
3 red elemental blast
3 stifle
2 ground seal
1 capsize1 naturalize
1 oxidize
1 fact or fiction
1 seedtime

firestorm is AMAZING!!! I played against 1 non-aggro deck, and I wouldn’t have made it close to top 8 without this card. In testing, I found that I always had tons of cards in hand, but nothing to do with them because of insufficient mana. So I let excess cards become a resource through this card. It saved me countless times, and while I’m not sure about it’s value in tog, I know its staying in here.

And now, the tournament report:

Round 1
Loren .H with PT funk
game 1: lots of dryads gang-beat to take this game.
game 2: I lost to river boa beatdown, those guys are vicious.
game 3: Loren was annoyed about this one, at one point I had 2 dryads, one of them a 1/1 one a 4/4. He had smother in hand, but forgot to play during his turn when I was tapped out and instead played it during my upkeep, when I was holding double drain and mana leak. I won this very close game.
1-0   2-1

Round 2
Zack with Mask
game 1: early damping matrix shuts him down.
game 2: I get an early matrix, he gets a lot of negators. He also gets out a chains. I get him down to 1 or 2 life with dryads before his negators and then we trade creatures, leaving me with a 3/3 dryad and him with a negator.  He’s forced to sit and wait until he can find a second negator to safely attack, I find a cunning wish before he finds the negator.
2-0    4-1

Round 3
?  with goblin sligh
game 1: I get out a huge swarm of angry dryads that beatdown.
game 2: he gets first turn double piledriver.
game 3: I don’t remember too much about this game, just scooping to a siege-gang commander after a lot of damage.
2-1   5-3

Round 4
Mike with broodstarrunner
game 1: maindecked matrices stop his welders and dryads swing for the win.
game 2: I get shown the brokenness of Draw 7's and lightning greaves.
game 3: Firestorm. Is. So. Broken.
3-1 7-4

At this point I traded for an LoA, my first piece of power

Round 5
Ethan with Oshawa Stompy
Game 1: I have out 3 dryads and he has out 2 hidden gibbons. I’m all scared about playing instants, and then I realize that my dryads can take gibbons any day of the week, and I get 3 angry 7/7 beatsticks.
Game 2: He had out 2 mongrels, a couple rootwallas, and I think an arrogant wurm. I have out a future sight, but barely and mana. I was pretty sure that I was dead, but then I remembered that I use firestorm. Mystical- Cunning Wish- Firestorm- so many dead forest critters.
4-1 9-4

Round 6
??? with ???
After a hardfought battle of 0 games, we ID into the top 8.
4-1-1 10-5

Top Eight
Frank with Oshawa Stompy
game 1: Fastbond + Future Sight + Firestorm.
game 2: he beats me down to 2 life, but then I firestorm away all his stuff, lay down a damping matrix, and play a second wish for capsize. I bounce back all his threats and counter them. Firestorm is so good!

Quarter Finals
??? with control slaver
game 1: I get really mana screwed, a pentavus kills me.
game 2: He gets out a chalice for 2, has a chalice for three on the stack when I wish for oxidize and oxidize his chalice for 2. I play some dryads and beatdown.
game 3: He gets out a really early chalice for 2 and 0, but then I strip his only land and oxidize his chalice for 2. He scoops with his only permanents a chalice for 0 and a mana crypt that was killing him.

Finals
Mike with broodstarrunner
game 1: he takes the longest turn I can remember on turn 2, playing every draw 7 in his deck multiple times.
game 2: same thing as first, only it was turn 4.

So I ended up with an illusionary mask and an LoA that I traded for.
Props:
Firestorm, for being so good, even if everyone hates you.
Andy Stok for trading me an LoA
Brian, for the great advise on matchups. “use mana drain”
everyone at the tournament, for showing up on short-notice
my foil dryads, for smashing so much face
Slops:
Seedtime, for doing nothing

P.S could a mod move this to the appropriate forum?
Thanks,
Sam

[Grand Inquisitor]

What, no props for the sock of wrath tech in the semi's!?!

[jpmeyer]

So like how specifically did you use Firestorm?

[Jacob Orlove]

Could you please post the following response:

" I generally used firestorm against Oshawa Stompy, playing a big draw spell (gush, AK, ancestral, deep analysis, etc...) and then discarding the worthless cards to firestorm. I used the card aggressively, discarding an important card to it if it meant dealing the damage to the opponent as well. All day I never once had to hit myself with it, and the scenario of the opponent only having 1 huge creature never happened.
     At one point against broodstarrunner in the swiss rounds he played a wheel of fortune and then proceeded to play 3 myr enforcers and 2 juggernauts. He was laughing about how amazing his hand was until I wished for firestorm and cleared his board. No one was expecting it, so no one tried to play around it.
     This card also has amazing synergy with deep analysis, which is good for filling up your hand before the firestorm or for refilling it after it is pitched.
     I generally kept it in the sideboard as a wish target since it was a 1 of, but against really fast aggro (namely FCG) I would probably board it in.
     

   And it was definately the sock of wrath that won me the semi-finals. Oxidize just helped the sock a little."

Thanks again,
Sam